This invention is described herein particularly as it relates to subway train systems and passenger control therefor. It is to be understood, however, that this invention has efficient application in any facility where passenger control is desired and therefore the example herein should not be limiting of the scope of this invention.
It is well known that a subway is one of the most efficient passenger transportation systems in a large city. However, most of the subways in the world are confronted with a traffic congestion problem during rush hours. This congestion is mainly caused by over-loading of passengers into the subway which exceeds the limits of transportation capacity of the system. Train travel time delays and over crowding of subway train compartments during rush hours are a direct result of this over-loading.
Two of the most important factors which govern the capacity of a subway transportation system are the subway train travel time from the station of origin to terminus and the maximum number of subway trains dispatchable during rush hours.
The total travel time (TOT) of a subway train from the station of origin to terminus is generally composed of three time elements: 1) the sum of subway train interval travel time between two adjacent stations; 2) the sum of passenger unloading and loading time at each station; and 3) the sum of extra waiting time in a station due to some uncontrollable circumstances. The maximum number of subway trains dispatchable (MTD) for a given time duration depends on TOT and the minimum distance on time interval allowed between two consecutive subway trains (MIT). It is obvious that the more subway trains that are dispatched, the more people can be transported but it is practically limited by the MTD. Since the MIT is more or less a fixed quantity for a given subway system for safety reasons and particularly it reaches to the limit during the rush hours, further reduction of the MIT is very unlikely. Thus it appears that the only viable option to increase a subway system's transportation capacity is to maximize the MTD by minimizing the TOT if we are constrained to utilize currently existing subway trains without any costly major remodifications to the subway system.
In order to minimize the TOT of subway systems, all three time elements of the TOT should be minimized: